Opinion

Even in these times where the well-heeled and well-certified are happy to bemoan how the oiks vote, it is rare for somebody to openly advance new means of restricting the franchise. But it has happened.

To listen to Sam Harris’s Waking Up Podcast is to hear an ongoing rearguard action from the new atheist, neuroscientist and public intellectual, defending his reputation against critics eager to paint him as a supporter, unwitting or otherwise, of bigotry.

The death of Winnie Mandela, wife of Nelson and key figure in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, has prompted inevitable jostling between the opinion sections of Britain’s newspapers.

The Graun fielded a complaint from Afua Hirsch that the obits would have been nicer if Winnie was a white guy. This was prompted by Andrew Malone of the Mail, who described Mandela as ‘an odious, toxic individual who continued to preach hatred rather than reconciliation right up to the end of her life.’

There is much to dislike about the Lib Dems’ stance on Brexit, which is to overturn the vote through another referendum – a very European solution to the problem of voters not doing as their betters expect.

This is one reason not to support the yellows, who have fallen greatly since Nick Clegg led them into coalition in 2010. Another comes with the recent comments from the new leader Vince Cable on race and Brexit.

A ‘dog whistle’ is an odd metaphor to use for coded, bigoted messages in politics. Its original aim was to denote something heard by a politicians’ supporters while being silent to everyone else. But for the most part it doesn’t work that way.